It is good to see continued activity on the forum. Thanks for the reports!

So - like and idiot - I let my wife talk me into listing out house for sale. We have been talking about it for several years, and been doing improvements along the way. But now I am under the gun to get the final touches on a few "eye sores". If someone told me on my last sit on Oct 5, that I would not be out again until November, I'd would have said they were crazy. I guess I am the crazy one! Maybe next weekend...

A clear, cold, calm morning, and running just a little late, I was walking into the campground stand as it was breaking light. There was a heavy frost and I was crunching leaves under foot as I made my way across the small open CRP field in a cutout of the timber that leads to my stand.

I was almost across the field when I heard a crash in the stand of willows that runs in front of my stand to the south and figured I just jumped a bedded deer. But after taking a few more steps I was still hearing the noise and stopped to look a little closer. About 40 yards away I could see the silhouette of a deer with its head down that appeared to be rubbing a tree. Then all of a sudden another deer between my stand and I took off running through the willows, and the first deer raised it head to see what was going on. It looked around for a few seconds and then lowered its head to address what I can now make out to be a second deer and the locked antlers and started sparring again. I watched for a minute or so and then standing in the open decided to try and take a few more steps to gain some cover. Well, I had only taken a few steps when they both raised their heads and stared right at me. They watched for a few moments and then turned and bounded away. I finished my walk to stand and was strapped in by 6:55am.

About 7:10 a heard something to my east and hear came another buck, he had a nice right side but a large spike on the left side. He skirted the edge of the timber about 40 yards to my east, and bedded down 50 yards over my left shoulder. While he was a decent sized deer and probably a good cull, I only get two bucks a year and things are just starting to heat up. I have several vacation days coming up and didn’t want to burn a tag on him this early. So I made the decision he wasn’t a shooter should he present a shot. Not 10 minutes later a 4th buck, a small 6 point, came bounding in from the east, and trotted by right in front of my stand at about 15 yards, never stopping.

The bedded buck then decided to get up and see what was going on, walked back towards me skirting the timber, turned and walked right in to my shooting lane. He stopped and checked out my game cam, obviously knowing it is there, turned and walked in front of me, stopped to paw at a scrap and freshen a licking branch and then walked off to the west. It’s 7:45 and it has been action packed.

About 8:10 I see two does coming in through the CRP field, and then I catch a little 4 point in the timber over my right shoulder watching them. As they got closer he went to meet them, sticking his nose up one’s butt and turning her in circles. All of a sudden another deer, who I could never see clearly, came running in across the field and ran them all off. I assume it was also a buck.

8:30 rolls around and from the east comes a nice doe with a button buck. They are working right to me and I’m thinking, finally, when about then she turns and circles around behind me. The button of course walks right in front of me, but the doe comes in from over my left shoulder and at about 6 yards from my tree, evidently winds me, and bounds to the outside of the tree line to my east. This scared the button who jumps and goes west of me 40 yards. She circles around and is coming down right where the button had walked, as she passes behind a big cotton wood I anchor at full draw, and exiting the west side of the tree she turns and walks right at me, offering no shot. All I need is her to take one step to the side, and again she jumps and runs off through the willows taking button with her.

A little later I saw one more deer walk by on the outside of the willows. About 9:30. I couldn’t feel my toes anymore, and my morning coffee was pushing through, so I climbed down, switched cards in my game cam and headed out. It was a beautiful morning and a great hunt. The movement appears to be picking up.

In the evening, I returned to the stand on the ditch I had hunted Thursday and Friday. I had a doe and button come from the south. They crossed the corn stalks, went into the creek bottom and then walked in the creek for about 60 yards before coming up on my side. They worked around in the bottom for a while before going back across the creek and feeding out into the cornstalks at dusk. It wasn’t near as eventful as the morning.

Think he'll always be a spike on the left side? I passed on a half-rack last season. He was a 1 1/2 yr old with 3 points with some good length on the left, and the right side had no antler. I couldn't tell if it was just a nub, or if there was some kind of damage. I haven't gotten any pics or seen any half rack bucks around this year either.

Awesome to see more activity. Sounds like the rut is starting to kick off.

I probably won't be able to hunt next weekend. Really looking forward to that 4 day weekend coming up.

"When a hunter is in a tree stand with high moral values and with the proper hunting ethics and richer for the experience, that hunter is 20 feet closer to God." ~Fred Bear

A local deer breeder basically said, you never know. Not knowing what caused the deformed antler, whether it is genetic, whether it is from a injury in a previous year, whether it is from an injury sustained this year early in the antler growth, it's a crap shoot as to whether it will ever grow a normal antler, grow into a non typical like a drop tine or a multiple point deformation, or whether it will just always be a big old ugly spike.

But he simply wasn't what I wanted for my buck tag at this point in the season.

60 degrees and an almost unnoticeable NE wind allowed me to go to a stand hadn't hunted yet that sits on a long drainage ditch that runs out through the middle of a couple hundred acres of picked corn field. There are CRP filter strips on each side of the ditch. My stand is about a 1/2 mile walk in, and the entire time I'm thinking, how will I ever get into this stand without bumping deer out?

I make it into stand at 5:10 without doing so, and unbelievably, at 5:15 I have two does and a button walking down the outside edge of the CRP towards me. They took their time, walking single file, and every time the lead doe would stop the little button would attempt to mount her. But they passed by to far out for a shot. About 6:10 a yote worked it's way south cross the corn stalks and then turned and went into the ditch to the north of me, but he never came by my stand. Likely he picked up the scent of those does and headed back north.

These are a few of my trail cam shots. The last buck, a 9pt with 5 on the left side is the buck I had feeding at 70 yards for about a half an hour before he bedded down. I think he was bedded down initially, and got up to eat for awhile before bedding back down.

Last season I was trying to hold out for a really big deer, something that would be 4 yrs or older. My freezer was full and I've got several pretty racks on my wall. This year with my limited time afield, I'm thinking either of these two bigger bucks will get an arrow if I get a chance.

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"When a hunter is in a tree stand with high moral values and with the proper hunting ethics and richer for the experience, that hunter is 20 feet closer to God." ~Fred Bear

Taking advantage of a easterly wind, I went back to the same stand as the night before on a long drainage ditch. It was about 50 degrees and overcast. I never saw a deer, but had a coyote try to slip behind me at about 20 yards.